Modern Methuselahs or, Short biographical sketches of a few advanced nonagenarians or actual centenarians who were distinguished in art, science, literature, or philanthropy : also, brief notices of some individuals remarkable chiefly for their longevity / by John Burn Bailey.

  • Bailey, John Burn.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern Methuselahs or, Short biographical sketches of a few advanced nonagenarians or actual centenarians who were distinguished in art, science, literature, or philanthropy : also, brief notices of some individuals remarkable chiefly for their longevity / by John Burn Bailey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    ▼iii PKEFACE. to the conclusion that it was in vain to seek for any one feature which, shared by all, would satis- factorily determine to what they were indebted for lives extended far beyond the usual term of man's existence. The introductory chapter, and remarks here and there throughout the work, state in detail the hygienic lessons which these lives sometimes seem to teach, and at other times to ignore. In conclusion, the compiler found so much interest in the variety of characters thus summoned before him—individuals of different climes, of eras long removed from each other, of varying national customs, and of modes of life widely diverse—that he thought others might be glad to share the interest with him, the more so as the greater number of the lives are not those which are over and over again brought before the public. He has also endeavoured to present, as far as possible, more of the personal history and domestic habits of those whose lives are reviewed than is generally given. Some geologists describe the Mosaic creation as the rearrangement of pre-existing material; such is very much the case with the present volume. The compiler has not scrupled to avail himself of the labours of those who have gone before him ; but